AutoCAD MAC 2014 - Poor performance MBP Retina

[matt]

Hi,

I have a brand new MBP 15" Retina top spec model, 2.3Ghz i7 with 16Gb of ram. Dowloaded 30 day trial of AutoCAD for MAC 2014. 

The machine runs all other apps fine. 

AutoCAD runs just ok.....a little laggy.....not really lucid..... but then intermidintatly the machine has full heart attack. I'm only drawing in 2D!

- Having the properties window open seems to be particualrly problematic

- Hatching causes a significant struggle

- Random occasions it goes all jerky for 10 seconds

- Starting a selction box always causes a hesitation

- Over time is seems to ramp down to the point where it is hardly able to continue and restart is required.

I've got transperancy set to off, dynamic input off, preselection highlight is on (don't know how to turn it off), adaptive degredigation is on.

Shouldn't the latest version of AutoCAD on the latest and fastest MBP just be smoking hot, no problems even with all juicy features running???

Keen to purchase the Mac version but I can't work like this.

Any help would be appreciated.

Matt

[maxim_k]

Welcome to the Autodesk Forums!

Hi Matt,

To say true there are some reasons that may case behavior you described in your post. And sometimes I have some of troubles you described, but in general I'm satisfied with AC for Mac performance on my MacBook Pro (mid 2012, High-Res mdel, Intel Core i7, 16 Gb RAM, Nvidia GeForce GT 650M with 1 GB memory).

Sometimes I have troubles with DWG files created in PC version of AutoCAD (especially in AutoCAD verticals, such as Civil 3D) and with files that contains a lot of text objects with True Type fonts.

So my questions to you are:

- Do you have troubles with all DWG files, or with files that comes from other peoples, maybe created with AutoCAD verticals? And how complex they are?

- Do you have dedicated Graphics card enabled permanently on your Mac?

- Have you tried to enable Dynamic Input? In some files despite the fact that it sounds like a paradox, enabling Dyn Input increases Graphics performance in AutoCAD for Mac.

You can turn off Selection preview by setting SELECTIONPREVIEW system variable to 0 (zero).

About Hatches - sometimes in complex drawings it is extremely "heavy" process for AutoCAD (end in PC version too).

Maxim

[matt]

Hi Maxim,

Thanks for your help.

- I found the graphics switching in energy saver preferences and locked onto high power. No notable improvement.

- But yes,I hadn't tried many different DWG files. I tried some others and performance was better. In the drawing I was working on I had some construction lines heading off to infinity..... So I trimed them and things got a lot more lucid.

Then I tried a Zoom-all.

My drawing zoomed out a long way, so far that I couldn't even zoom back in with the wheel! I tried selecting all the black space to delete whatever might be out there but to no avail.... So I selected all (cmd A) then deselected the area around the UCS (where my drawing was located but so small I couldn't see it) and erased..... Nothing was visably selected but after hitting erase-enter then zoom-all my drawing appeared back in the middle of the screen.

Things are much more lucid now. No lag. Selection preview works instantly. Selection boxes don't hesitate. Hatching is super quick. Really good.

So something was existing in the model space thousands of miles from my drawing.... Maybe I copied it in from a block file somewhere along the line.

Interesting though the same drawing works alright on the PC version.

All of this said I also just opened some more complicated drawings..... of buildings..... Possibly originally done in vectorworks. Still pretty laggy, especially panning and zooming. This file was OK running on the PC version of AutoCAD.

Guess I will keep at it, really want to change to Mac version.

[maxim_k]

Have to say I always try to keep drawings I'm working on in a neat and clean condition, no matter what Autocad I use PC or Mac 😉

Maxim

[cadfabulous]

Hi Matt & Maxim,

Yeah- I'm having the same issues on my MB Air (13" 4G 2010, 10.9, ACLT 2014). Panning / zooming is very laggy,  I have to click on an object mutliple times just to select it, & then when copying or moving I have to click a few times to get it to recognize a base point. I'm nor sure if it's my mouse (GearHead bluetooth), ACLT, or my Mac, which is not the newest or most powerful. 

And it could be the graphics card, like you guys talked about earlier.  Again, I'm not running on an MBP...

Good to know I'm not the only one. 🙂

Thanks!

Julie

[matt]

Hi There Julie,

I can't really comment specifically as to if AutoCAD should run okay on your machine.
I have been testing AutoCAD for Mac for a week now drawing with it daily. Previously I have been running the windows version via bootcamp.

Some observations about AutoCAD Mac.

- Seems to be generally a little less responsive than PC. Eg when I press E-X-Enter for "extend" I tend to get "erase" loaded instead. I.e The machine is lagging my keystrokes and only gets the e-enter command.

- While the Mac version runs okay generally, complex drawings are more laggy on Mac than they are on PC. I.e if AutoCAD Mac is struggling to pan around and zoom I can open the same drawing on the same computer but running windows and all is good.

- The interface is pretty sweet. I don't use menus or ribbons much so it is great to have the screen space available.

- The retina support is great. I've just gone from a 27in iMac to 15in Macbook and I don't feel like going back to the big screen.... the high res make up for size.

- PDF export creates much larger PDF's than the PC version. This is problematic for emailing but also just gives all computers a hard time opening my drawings. This is a serious drawback.

- The mac world is much better for wrangling files and folder...... This is a big plus.

Generally at this point I feel that I will stick with the Mac version despite some of the shortcomings.

Definitely interested to hear other opinions.

Matt